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Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria were many centuries old when the mountain-walled plateau region south of the Caspian Sea was settled by a nomadic people from the grasslands of Central Asia in approximately 1000 bc. Although the newcomers called themselves Irani (Aryans) and their new homeland Irania (now Iran), the land came to be called Persia, because Greek geographers mistakenly named it after the province Pars, or Persis, where their early kings had their capital.…

The Achaemenian Dynasty (559–330 bc)

The Arsacid Dynasty (247 bc–ad 224)

The Sassanid Dynasty (225–640)

The Islamic Dynasties (640–1502)

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